Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese rights activist, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace prize, prompting a strong reaction from China.

Announcing the award in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on Friday, Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China.

"China has become a big power in economic terms as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism,'' he said .

Liu is in prison for helping to organise and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which calls for sweeping political reforms in China, including freedom of assembly, expression and religion. The 54-year-old literary critic and former professor was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in jail for subversion.

In response to the Oslo announcement, China said that giving the prize to "criminal" Liu ran contrary to the principles of the award, and warned ties with Norway would suffer.

"This is an obscenity against the peace prize," Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

'Chinese warnings'

Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Norwegian foreign minister, emphasised that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is independent of the government and that the award should not cause a hostile Chinese reaction.

"There are no grounds to direct any measures against Norway s a country, and I think it would have a negative effect on China's reputation if it did," he told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

"I don't want to play that up, but it's no secret that China for many years has given a series of warnings that a peace price to a Chinese dissident would lead to negative reactions."

Reacting to the award, France, Germany and Taiwan's main opposition party urged China to free Liu.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 but is seen as a traitor by China because of his struggle for a more autonomous Tibet, congratulated Liu and called for his release.

Liu has called for the reform of China's one-party Communist system and was jailed for 21 months for taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

In 1996, he served another three years in a "re-education" camp for seeking the release of prisoners jailed in the Tiananmen demonstrations.

Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu had become a symbol for the struggle for human rights in China.

"The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad," he said.

"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said Liu is well known in China.

"Most people in China actually know his name. The thing with Chinese human rights activists is that they tend to be known outside their country more than they're known inside their country, because of the censorship issues for example," she said.

"But Liu was a prominent writer before he became an activist.

"Not only is he known in the intelligentsia and he academic world. His political manifesto, Charter 08, has picked up more than 10,000 signatures and these Chinese who have signed on to this charter say they are from all walks of life."

Wife 'excited'

At least three former peace prize winners - Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, the Dalai Lama and the Czech politician Vaclav Havel - had been among those calling for Liu to get the Peace Prize.

After hearing about Liu's award, his wife said thanked his supporters and called for his release.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

2009:

Barack Obama, US president

2008:

Martti Ahtisaari, former Finish president and peace mediator

2007:

Al Gore, US politician and climate activist, shared the prize with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change

2006:

Muhammad Yunus shares the prize with the Grameen Bank he founded, providing loans to the rural poor of Bangladesh

2005:

Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, shares the prize with the International Atomic Energy Agency

"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I don't know what to say," Liu Xia told the news agency AFP.

"I want to thank everyone for supporting Liu Xiaobo. I want to thank the Nobel committee, Vaclav Havel, the Dalai Lama and all those people that have supported Liu Xiaobo," she said.

"I strongly ask that the Chinese government release Liu Xiaobo."

Before the official announcement on Friday, Liu had been the advance favourite in the guessing-game for the award.

This year, the Nobel Committee considered a record 237 individuals and organisations for prestigious prize.

The Nobel prizes were established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, and were first handed out in 1901.

According to Nobel's will, the peace prize should be given to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

The award of $1.5 million will be handed out in Oslo on December 10, while the other Nobel prize ceremonies are held in Sweden, in line with the founder's wishes. Sweden and Norway were joined in a union during his lifetime.

The Norwegian parliament appoints the five voting members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the laureate for the Peace prize.

Each year, the committee invites qualified people to submit nominations for the prize.